Musings on a Life in the Theatre, Tablet PC's, Cultural Issues, (oh, and the occasional emu sighting...)

January 17, 2009

Swearing by My Chiropractor

I had never been to a chiropractor until yesterday. Today, I’m swearing by mine. I’ve been suffering from a cold of late, and this one brings on fits of sneezing. Now, when I sneeze, it is loud often violent. Often so large an outburst that folks down the hall from my office will shout “God bless you” after one of my explosions.

Sitting at my desk yesterday, one of these explosive sneezes came out and I felt a twinge in my right shoulder. Non-plussed I went on typing for about 10 minutes or so. I then reached up with my right hand for something on my desk and felt extraordinary pain in my right shoulder.

Now, I have a high tolerance for pain. I’ve been known to spend an entire rehearsal hopping around on one leg after a groin pull. But something told me this was different right away.

My first thought was that I had someone dislocated my shoulder. I had one of my staff members help me check out my range of motion and ruled out a dislocation. But the pain kept getting worse and I got an appointment set up with a chiropractor.

He spent a full two hours with me yesterday afternoon and upon leaving, the pain did still exist, but it was less so. I thought exiting into the very cold weather was going to set me back though. Once I got home and warmed up I did feel better and areas of my shoulder that earlier had been very painful to touch were no longer.

I was afraid to go to sleep because I am a tosser and a turner. But I managed to get through the night without waking, which in and of itself was a unique feat. When I awoke this morning, I felt tremendously better. I had recovered some range of motion but not all. The nagging pain was no longer there and the point of touch pain was in a very small area.

After an appointment this afternoon, I would now say I’m back to about 85% with little or no pain at the moment. This about 26 hours after the incident occurred. I’ll keep up the treatment and exercises and pay him a visit again on Tuesday. This has been an eye-opening experience for me. I think this guy has a customer for life.

Comments

Swearing by My Chiropractor

I had never been to a chiropractor until yesterday. Today, I’m swearing by mine. I’ve been suffering from a cold of late, and this one brings on fits of sneezing. Now, when I sneeze, it is loud often violent. Often so large an outburst that folks down the hall from my office will shout “God bless you” after one of my explosions.

Sitting at my desk yesterday, one of these explosive sneezes came out and I felt a twinge in my right shoulder. Non-plussed I went on typing for about 10 minutes or so. I then reached up with my right hand for something on my desk and felt extraordinary pain in my right shoulder.

Now, I have a high tolerance for pain. I’ve been known to spend an entire rehearsal hopping around on one leg after a groin pull. But something told me this was different right away.

My first thought was that I had someone dislocated my shoulder. I had one of my staff members help me check out my range of motion and ruled out a dislocation. But the pain kept getting worse and I got an appointment set up with a chiropractor.

He spent a full two hours with me yesterday afternoon and upon leaving, the pain did still exist, but it was less so. I thought exiting into the very cold weather was going to set me back though. Once I got home and warmed up I did feel better and areas of my shoulder that earlier had been very painful to touch were no longer.

I was afraid to go to sleep because I am a tosser and a turner. But I managed to get through the night without waking, which in and of itself was a unique feat. When I awoke this morning, I felt tremendously better. I had recovered some range of motion but not all. The nagging pain was no longer there and the point of touch pain was in a very small area.

After an appointment this afternoon, I would now say I’m back to about 85% with little or no pain at the moment. This about 26 hours after the incident occurred. I’ll keep up the treatment and exercises and pay him a visit again on Tuesday. This has been an eye-opening experience for me. I think this guy has a customer for life.